Amex Receives A Dear John Letter

Nauseous from the wild roller coaster of his Amex APR’s oscillations, Ben McConnell over at the Church of the Customer blog has flung himself off the ride at high velocity:

I’m done with your parlor game called Guess Your New Interest Rate! For the third time in 1.5 years, you goosed mine to 29.9%. I have been faithful to your tied-to-the-tracks 14-day payment window. I’m nowhere close to exceeding my credit limit. Lord knows your reason this time. Crooked stamp?…

Something is causing you to play this game. Wall Street? Revolving debt did drop $1.5 billion in March. Not good for revenues. A Wall Street knife to your throat is scary.

A computer simulation guessing that people like me won’t notice our rates have tripled? That might be it.

It’s the plight of guys like Ben who pay their credit card bills faithfully every month that makes me — a man who pays his credit card bill only when he happens to remember it — positively tremble at the prospect of breaking out the old magnifying glass and checking out my fine print.

I only carry an Amex (charge card, not credit card) these days, and typically have had nothing but praise for them. However, one incident led me to realize how wrong I was to put so much faith in them.

My card was declined for a tiny charge at a take-out restaurant. I assumed it was a merchant error, but I called Amex just to be certain. Rep tells me that due to new info in my credit report, I must pay my entire outstanding balance immediately to restore my charging privileges.

As it’s the only card I depend on, I was livid, confused and worried. After a few more minutes, once I regained the ability to form complete sentences (almost), I asked for a supervisor. As soon as she came on the line, she explained that my account was fine. The problem was that the merchant didn’t take Amex. (Although the sticker in their window said otherwise.)

I’d still like to know how they can confuse a delinquent account with a merchant processing error so easily.